


Monster in Me

by Wordsinrain



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Rescue, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21636463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wordsinrain/pseuds/Wordsinrain
Summary: After Geralt explains to Emperor Emhyr what happened to Ciri he is arrested. Yennefer is not pleased and goes to rescue what is hers.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Comments: 4
Kudos: 145





	Monster in Me

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the end of Witcher 3.

The sound of my heels as they hit the stone floor of the palace was like a lullaby. The sound was so familiar that it almost calmed the thundering noise in my chest. Memories clung to the high ceilings of the palace; it was a toxic mix of power and vulnerability. I had been in control here, but I had been under control too. 

The guard led the way and opened the door to the Emperor’s study. Emhyr was sat at his usual desk, pouring over letters and maps.

‘Yennefer, to what do I owe the pleasure?’ He asked but his head did not rise. It was insulting and deliberate and I gritted my teeth to stop saying something that would get me in trouble.

‘Where is Geralt?’ I asked walking further into the room. He lifted his head then, and with the languidness of any ruler, sat back in his chair. Magic hummed underneath my skin, magic I wanted to hurl at Emhyr and his deliberate arrogance. 

‘In prison,’ he said. I held my body in stillness. I had known it was coming and yet if I moved I thought I would explode everything. 

‘And why is he in prison?’ I pushed, forcing a casual tone to my words. Images were flashing in my mind of what happened when I was in prison here. Crackles of energy escaped from my fingertips, but Emhyr made no sign that he had seen.

‘He committed treason,’ he said. ‘He is responsible for the death of my daughter.’ 

I stepped forward and his eyes narrowed in what I could only assume was a warning. I don’t know what he thought I could do one step closer that I couldn’t do from where I had been. I could kill him from anywhere in the room if I wished to. 

‘Ciri confronted the White Frost of her own volition to save the world,’ I corrected.

‘We only have his word for that,’ he said. ‘And that elf that is conveniently not around.’ 

This had nothing to do with what really happened. Emhyr didn’t have what he wanted and he needed someone to punish for that. But I had to be clever about this. I could kill him now and that would get me nowhere except burnt at a stake. I couldn’t out Ciri as alive without ruining her future, and that was not an option. 

‘You can’t have him,’ I stated. It was not my smartest move but it slipped out my mouth of it’s own will. 

Emhyr laughed and the magic screamed in me, pushing at the edges of my skin. I would end up killing him if I couldn’t get a reign in on myself. 

‘You have no power here Yennefer of Vengerberg. You had some sway once and you have sacrificed that for a lover who will soon be hung for his crimes against the state.’ 

This time I was the one to laugh, ‘I have been many things Emperor Emhyr, but I have never once been powerless. Not when I was beaten by my family, not when I was taken by the wild hunt and not even when you held me in your dungeons.’

‘I was the one who let of you out of those dungeons don’t forget. If you insist on this path I will have you executed too.’ 

‘Go ahead,’ I hissed. ‘But I will take you and your empire down with me. Think carefully before you make me your enemy Emperor.’ 

I waved a hand and stepped through the portal I created before he could actually call the guards on me.

* * *

I stepped out into white so bright it hurt my eyes, but no thoughts came to my mind. I screamed. The magic that I’d held back pulsed out of me like I’d popped the cork on champagne. The energy rushing out of me as the dam finally burst. I screamed till I couldn’t scream anymore and I sank to my knees gasping for air. 

I stayed there sunk into the snow for a while before I realised I was shivering. I took deep hungry breaths, trying to gain back some of the energy I had expelled. 

I looked around at the expanse around me. I was on a mountain, and it wasn’t until I saw the ship that I realised exactly where I’d portal’d myself. Fitting I supposed. There was barren earth passed the circle of snow I was knelt in. The magic I’d thrown away had melted so much of the ice around me. 

‘Fuck me,’ I breathed. What was I going to do to get Geralt? I couldn’t get Ciri, she’d turn herself in. Not to mention this was possibly a suicide mission. Anyone caught trying to free a prisoner of Nilfgaard would surely face execution. And Geralt wouldn’t forgive me for endangering his loved one’s lives for his sake. I was doubtful he’d forgive me for risking my own. In fact I was pretty sure he wouldn’t, but that was a problem for a different day.

‘Well, I’m going to have to do this on my own,’ I said to the snow, and if I perished then Ciri would turn herself in anyway. Might as well try the brute strength approach first before Ciri threw away her life on us again. 

I paced back and forth on the bare mountain. How could I rescue him without also getting a death sentence. It was impossible, but I also knew I couldn’t make this plan without knowing what state Geralt was in. Was he already too far gone? I knew too well what Emhyr’s prison could do to someone. His methods were thorough if nothing else. But then again, Geralt was stubborn and obtuse and not likely to break under anything so obvious as torture. 

I needed to get to the dungeons to see how he was before I could plan anything. Emhyr would know I would try a rescue. He’d have trippled the number of guards, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Philippa had laid plenty of traps if she was not there herself to ward me off. But I doubted they would guard the Kitchens. Kitchens that were directly above the dungeons.  
I was loathe to do it, but I glamoured myself anyway, changing my appearance so it looked plain, ordinary. I had been born imperfect and had created myself to be enchanting, it was grating to render myself to be just like everyone else, and an insult to my power. But, it was only the way to make sure I wasn’t recognised on sight. My carefully cultivated image was both a blessing and a hindrance. No one would look for anyone without raven hair and a black and white dublet. 

I would wait and rest till nightfall, there was a brief window between the servants finishing for the night and the new ones starting that I could use. I might look like I paid no heed to servants but that was part of the image I created. It was a damn shame I didn’t have time or the ingredients to enchant myself an invisible amulet, but I had to work with what was in front of me.

When the time came I portaled myself to one of the kitchens I knew to be above the west end of the dungeons. I was hoping it would be close enough to telepath to Geralt but I also didn’t think I would be so lucky. 

The kitchen was empty and dark. I quickly cast a spell to light the candles in the room. It was exactly like I remembered. I ran my hand over the wooden surface of the table and all thoughts of Geralt vanished. I remembered standing in this room a few moments after I was freed. Moments after I was freed and then released from listening to my new obligations from Emhyr. I had been so hungry I thought the hollowness in my stomach would never be filled. I hadn’t thought of anything else other than filling that space. I’d been cold, empty, broken. Sparks emitted from my fingertips again and left a scorch mark on the surface. 

I shook my head. I had to find Geralt not reminisce on Emhyr’s fine hospitality. I pushed my senses outward. Searching for any sign of Geralt’s mind. I couldn't sense him, but I did hear a chambermaid have her way with a guard in one of the pantry rooms. I frowned, but resisted the urge to cause mischief, just because my bedfellow was currently not servicing me did not mean I should interfere with anyone else, no matter how much I wanted to. 

I checked my reflection in one of the serving platters and winced, at the least the spell was working. I crept out of the kitchen keeping my head low but constantly searching out my mind to find Geralt. 

There he was, I could spot him easily as if his mind was merely an extension of my own. 

_Geralt?_ He was barely conscious. It was the barest touch of his mind against mine, like a brush against my skin. 

_Let me sleep Yen._ I sucked in a gasp. The pain he felt pulsed through me in waves, it took all my will not to pass out with the sheer force of it. I clung to the wall to steady myself. The Emperor had tortured him alright. 

_Geralt!_ I pushed magic into the shout, I needed him to hear me. I needed his mind not to be broken. 

_Yen_ he whined.

_My love I need you to wake up. I’ve come for you, but I need you awake. Tell me your injuries._

I could feel his confusion, he knew he was in pain, but his mind had taken him elsewhere, he didn’t even know where he was. 

_Come back to your body._ I coaxed. In any other circumstance I might have promised him all kinds of pleasures for returning to his body, but I felt nothing was going to by worth the pain his physical form was in. Instead I sent waves of magic along to his mind, magic scented like me. 

_Yen, don’t come here it’s not safe_ he panicked. 

I laughed. Trust him not to be fully aware of what was going on and still try to protect me. 

_I’m already here._

His awareness crashed back to him like a hammer across a breastplate. I collapsed to the floor as the true extent of his pain thundered through my body. 

I couldn’t breathe, the pain was everything, and every sense. I snapped back from my connection with him in an effort of self-preservation. I kept only the smallest of touches and still I felt bile burn in my throat. 

_I’m coming for you._ I didn’t know if he heard me over the roaring of his mind. Anger replaced the pain that I’d sent away. I told the Emperor not to make an enemy of me. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered I had come here to reconnaissance not for attack. I needed to formulate a plan that would see us safe later. But that was before I’d felt Geralt’s pain, before I had realised the extent of damage caused to him. Geralt might be a witcher, and maybe he could rescue himself, and maybe he had been through worse, but none of that mattered to me. I am a sorceress and I would be damned if I would allow any further harm to come to him. 

The anger fuelled my magic and I could feel the sparks radiating off me. I opened my arms to the air around me and let the magic wrench free. The ground trembled beneath my feet, shuddering with each wave of magic rolling off me. The walls were shaking and I didn’t care. I screeched and watched the stones come away from the walls and crash to ground. 

I followed the connection to Geralt, letting it pull me along like a fishing line, and as I went the castle continued to vibrate and disintegrate. A sconce nearly landed on me, but I side stepped and kept going. Servants and guards were rushing out trying to flee the castle and trying to see what was happening. I didn’t pay much attention to their cries, I just kept walking. 

There were some guards that thought they saw a good opportunity to run me through with a sword. Some even fired arrows. They were mistaken. I pushed them all away, and heard their bodies crack against the crumbling walls.

It didn’t take me long to reach Geralt, destruction following in my wake. He was chained to the walls and only in breeches. The rest of his skin was a patchwork of bruises, cuts and burns. His head was hung low, he either didn’t hear the collapsing building around him or he didn’t care. 

‘Geralt,’ I called. He lifted his head slowly, as if that alone took all his energy. 

‘Yen?’ He asked. 

I stepped back from the cell, and ripped the bars apart, the crash of metal against stone adding to the noise of the obliterating dungeons. I pulled Geralt’s chains off the walls easily enough, his arms fell limp to the ground. 

I ran into the cell grabbing ahold of Geralt, I kissed his head and lips. 

‘Yen?’ He asked as I tried to put my arms around him to help him to his feet. Gods he was heavy. 

‘Okay you are going to need to move. I am not strong enough to carry you. When we get back you’re going to need to lay off the ale.’ 

He didn’t react straight away, but slowly he started moving, using the wall to push himself to standing. He had one arm around my shoulders and we started making our way out. He paused when we left the cell looking down the corridor I’d come from. 

‘Fucking hells, what have you done?’ 

‘What I had to,’ I replied. I was not justifying myself here and now, or explaining that I barely had control of my magic when my emotions were heightened. Let everyone just think I was crazy and selfish. ‘Come on.’ 

The more Geralt struggled to walk the worse the rage got. I’d only seen Geralt like this a handful of times, and none of them had been times I’d wanted to revisit. He was not a man to be brought to heel, and the attempts sickened me. The rumbling got worse, the whole floor was shaking beneath our feet. I could hear guards yelling. 

More debris came crashing down from the ceiling, I cast a shield around us to protect us from most of the damage. The stones bounced off as the palace grumbled. I needed to make a portal. I couldn’t hold the shield and portal at the same time, not with my magic surging out of me without focus. 

‘Hang on,’ I said. I let go of Geralt, I dropped the shield, and something slammed into my back and my chest tightened in a vice. I was struggling to breathe. I had to open the portal we had to get away. I pushed Geralt out of my thoughts trying to calm my anger enough to focus. 

‘Yen,’ Geralt’s voice had a bit of panic in it. ‘Anytime now.’ 

I created the portal with a final push of magic, I felt myself collapsing and Geralt grabbed a hold of me and pulled me through the portal. We tumbled to the ground on the other side and my vision went black.

* * *

I woke to the crackle of fire. My body ached, but the worst was the burning pain in my back. I was hungry though and there was a smell of cooking fish that was pulling at me. 

‘You’re awake,’ I heard Geralt say. Curse his damn Witcher senses, they never let me sleep in.

‘Unfortunately,’ I said opening my eyes and turning to look at him. He was sat next to fire, the orange glow highlighting his injuries. He’d already started to heal, his Witcher body taking over. He turned the fish over on the spit. ‘How long have I been out.’ 

‘A few hours, we’re going to have to move soon,’ he said. ‘We’re not that far from the palace, and after… well Emhyr is not going to be happy.’ 

‘When is he ever,’ I pushed myself to sitting, wincing at the pain lancing through my chest. ‘What hit me?’ 

‘An arrow,’ Geralt said sounding unamused. 

’That explains it,’ I said. ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve been hit by an arrow.’ 

‘You’re lucky to be alive,’ he growled. 

‘Thank you for rescuing me Yennefer I missed you terribly,’ I supplied. 

Geralt’s frown deepened, ‘it was reckless. I would’ve found a way out.’ 

I sighed. I knew this would be his response, I was tempted to go back to lying down and ignore him. He was clearly feeling better if he had it in him to scold me. 

‘Perhaps you would’ve, but I was not willing to wait for that.’

‘You nearly died,’ he yelled. 

‘So did you,’ I snapped back. Insufferable idiot. ‘Your fish is burning.’ 

Geralt huffed and went to grab the spit. 

‘You did not have to bring down that whole section of palace,’ he said. I contemplating being glib. It was expected after all, but at this point I was tired, and mostly tired of him being grumpy at me. 

‘I felt your pain,’ I said quietly looking into the fire. 

‘When you were in my head?’ he asked. I nodded. 

‘I was a bit angry,’ I said with a shrug. 

‘So it would seem,’ a new voice said. Geralt reached for a sword beside him, he must have acquired it when I was unconscious, because he definitely didn’t have one in the prison. 

‘Hello Philippa,’ I said, she must’ve been watching us for a while before transforming; Geralt would’ve heard her approaching otherwise. 

‘You made quite a mess,’ she said as if she was talking to a child. 

‘I did warn him not to make me an enemy,’ I replied keeping my tone light. I didn’t really fancy my chances against Philippa wounded, though I supposed Geralt did now have a sword. 

‘Yes you did and the Emperor has decided to listen to you. Given your emphatic show of strength, he has an offer.’ 

‘Get to it,’ Geralt said. He never did have the patience for sorceress politics. 

‘He can’t let you go away unscathed, that would be a show of weakness on his part,’ she said. ‘But so would an all out battle. He’d win no doubt but the severe depletion of forces over two such as yourselves would not win him any favours. So, he offers you exile. Complete banishment from the empire. As long as you remain out of his domain he will leave you be.’

‘And he can pretend he had us executed,’ Geralt added. Philippa nodded.

‘There are no other conditions to this offer?’ I ventured. 

‘None,’ she said. ’The Emperor rather likes his palace and would like to keep it in tip top working order. You know, not in rubble.’ 

I looked at Geralt and opened my mind to his. 

_Are you okay with this?_ I asked.

 _I can live anywhere. What about you, politics and power have always interested you? You would be completely cutting yourself off from that._ He said it without malice, just a statement of fact. 

‘We accept,’ I said instead of answering him. 

Philippa laughed, ‘You’re a fool Yen. The power it took to bring down that section of palace, you could be magnificent, and you’re throwing it all away.’ 

I shook my head, ’that power only exists because you both decided to take my heart, torture it and plan to have it executed.’ I hadn’t realised my voice had stated to rise, but the ground started to rumble. Philippa’s hands went to either side of her for balance. I felt Geralt’s hand on my shoulder. 

I let the touch of him calm me; he was safe and he was healing. I put my hand on his. 

‘Ridiculous, you have three days to get out.’ she snarled before morphing back to an owl and leaving. The magic use had taken it’s toll on me and I made myself lie down before I fell down. Geralt knelt next to me. 

‘I’m fine,’ I said with a yawn. ‘Just magic drain. I didn’t mean to start an earthquake, not particularly sensible after all the magic I used earlier.’ 

Geralt ran a hand over my cheek, ‘And you have an arrow wound.’ 

‘Yes and that,’ I said with a small smile. 

‘You destroyed a section of the palace by accident, because you were angry they’d hurt me?’ Geralt said shaking his head. 

‘I’d expect the same from you,’ I said coolly, my eyes already starting to close.

I felt his lips press against my forehead, ‘I’d bring down the whole empire if they ever laid a hand on you again.’ 

‘Good.’ I smiled and let myself drift to sleep.


End file.
